Fear is seen to be one of the defining political emotions of late modernity. Filmmakers, sociologists, artists, philosophers and pundits see fear everywhere. If fear has become a way of life, the contemporary city is seen by many to be one of its most prominent and productive social laboratories. But while fear is seen to be so politically significant, the way it is studied often both naturalizes and exteriorizes fear from politics. As a result, fear's more complex and antagonistic status as both a social relation and an arena of political action is submerged.